Nu rave, old rave, it matters not a jot: tibias still break the same. Jamie Reynolds, Klaxons lead singer and the man who invented the 'n' phrase (as a joke etc), has discovered he is not an indie immortal after he broke his leg trying to commune with his crowd during a gig in France. The question is: could the incident have been avoided?

MySpacing on the incident, Reynolds blamed the accident on his own lack of spatial perception. "As per usual I jumped from the stage on the final song of the set so as get that little closer", he tippety-tapped. "Only this time I'd drastically misjudged the approx 12 foot distance between the stage and the grass and landed with a larger than expected velocity on my right foot."

Ah, the old larger than expected velocity. Just one of the many pitfalls that confront the eager crowd surfer, stagediver or mosh merchant.

I am familiar with this problem myself having once launched myself into the sky at a Primal Scream concert only to realize too late that, this being the era of Screamadelica (an album which blended rock'n'roll with the housey stylings of Andrew Weatherall), the venue would contain an element of a dance crowd and that dance crowds don't do catching sweaty teenagers and that - ow - is that my arm shattering? Oh yes, it is, just at the very where that bouncer is grabbing it in fact. Never mind, at least I've learnt the first rule of successful gig acrobatics".

1. Know your crowd. You're on stage. You've got about 30 seconds until some officious individual tackles you (unless this is a Doherty gig in which case get set, you're in for the long run). The best thing you can do is pinpoint the part of the crowd with its hands in the air, with its hands eagerly waving and that appears ready to have 14 stones of sweat land right on top of them. That they themselves will be equally sweaty is something worth bearing in mind.

2. Know your velocity. This is the problem encountered by Reynolds (albeit one complicated by an unwitting foreshortening). If you head off too hard, you're putting your catchers under pressure. Head off too slow and you might just catch yourself on the stage and flop, horribly, into the footlights. Top tip? Make like you're trying to jump onto a kerb while avoiding a puddle. Backwards.

3. Void your mouth. I don't mean spit, it's rude and is an easy way of transmitting tuberculosis. Rather, make sure there's no chewing gum or half-eaten Peruvian tapas in your mush as you could choke on it or boke it onto your handlers. Best to simulate a candidate for surgery and consume nil by mouth for 15 minutes before you dive.

4. Enjoy the moment! Of all the experiences available in rock'n'roll, being carried on the clammy hands of strangers for under a minute is surely one of the best. After platinum albums, glamorous gang bangs, hotel rooms the size of Paris - and the sheer joy of making music for music's sake, that is. When people come up to you afterwards in awe and ask just what it was like, make sure you gaze at them dreamily and say: "you couldn't possibly understand".